America begins mass deportation of illegal immigrants in 10 cities

President Donald Trump on Monday kicked off his sweeping immigration crackdown, tasking the U.S. military with aiding border security, issuing a broad ban on asylum, and taking steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.

Declaring illegal immigration a national emergency, Trump ordered the Pentagon to provide support for border wall construction, detention space, and migrant transportation, and empowered the secretary of Defence to deploy troops to the border as needed.

Trump called for his administration to reinstate his "remain in Mexico" programme, which forced non-Mexican migrants to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their U.S. cases.

Shortly after the inauguration, U.S. border authorities announced they had shut down outgoing President Joe Biden's CBP One entry programme, which had allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally by scheduling an appointment on an app. Existing appointments were cancelled, leaving migrants stunned and unsure of what to do.

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House after promising to intensify border security and deport record numbers of migrants. He criticised Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during the Democrat's presidency. However, as Biden toughened his policies last year and Mexico stepped up enforcement, the number of migrants caught crossing illegally fell dramatically.

Republicans argue that large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants crossed illegally during Biden's presidency. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status at the start of 2022, according to a U.S. government estimate, a figure some analysts now place at 13 million to 14 million.

"As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump declared in his inaugural address.

Trump's critics and immigrant advocates warn that mass deportations could disrupt businesses, split families, and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a federal court filing on Monday that Trump's decision to end the CBP One programme removed the only avenue to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, an opening salvo by the civil rights group to fight Trump's agenda in court.

Americans have grown less welcoming toward immigrants without legal status since Trump's first presidency but remain wary of harsh measures such as using detention camps, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found.

Biden entry programme shut down

In several Mexican border cities, migrants saw their appointments on Biden's CBP One app cancelled just after Trump took office. As of 7 January, some 280,000 people had been logging into the app daily to secure an appointment.

Migrants waiting in Ciudad Juarez scrambled to find short-term rentals, buy bus tickets, and contact family members back home.

Daynna del Valle, a 40-year-old Venezuelan, spent eight months in Mexico waiting for an appointment that would have arrived on Tuesday. In that time, she worked at a nail salon but earned so little that she barely managed to send any money back to her mother in Colombia, a cancer survivor who needed medical treatment for her blood pressure.

"I'm lost," she said. "I don't know what to do, where to go."

Denia Mendez, a Honduran sitting in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras — across from Eagle Pass, Texas — opened her email inbox 30 minutes after Trump became president. She stared at an email for several minutes, reading it over and over, before her eyes welled up.

"They cancelled my appointment," she said. Several other migrants, who just minutes ago were laughing as they fed potato crisps to pigeons, huddled around her phone, their faces suddenly grave.

Mendez's 15-year-old daughter Sofia kept trying to get into the CBP One app.

"They're not going to let you into the app, baby," her mother told her softly.

Birthright citizenship targeted

In his order focusing on so-called "birthright citizenship," Trump directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of U.S.-born children without at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident parent, applying the restrictions within 30 days.

The order prompted a swift lawsuit filing in federal court in New Hampshire by the ACLU and other groups, who argued that Trump's directive violated the right to citizenship enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

"Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values," Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director, said in a statement.

In other actions, Trump suspended U.S. refugee resettlement for at least three months and ordered a review of security protocols to determine if travellers from certain nations should face a travel ban.

The Republican president rolled back existing guidance for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers that prioritised serious criminals and broadened the scope of their enforcement to include migrants with final deportation orders, a move expected to ramp up removals.

Additionally, Trump began steps to gain control of the U.S. Justice Department's immigration courts, firing four top immigration court officials, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Trump also initiated a process to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and to utilise a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act against foreign gang members. The cities on the deportation list are Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Miami, Washington, DC, Denver, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.